description
Sassafras albidum is a medium-sized deciduous tree of the Lauraceae family.
Sassafras trees can reach heights of up to 15–20 meters and gain a trunk diameter
of up to 60 cm. The tree's crown is formed by many slender sympodial branches.
Mature trees have thick dark red-brown bark that is deeply furrowed.
Initially shoots are
bright yellow green with mucilaginous bark, later turning reddish brown,
and in a couple of years the shoots begin to show shallow fissures.
The green to yellow-green leaves are alternate, ovate or obovate, 10–16 cm in length and 5–10
cm in width with a short, slender, slightly grooved petiole. The leaves are have three different shapes: three-lobed
leaves, unlobed elliptical leaves, and two-lobed leaves (on rare occasion there can be more than 3 lobes).
All of these shapes can appear on the same branch. Sassafras leaves turn to shades of yellow, tinged
with red during autumn.
In early spring before the appearance of leaves, yellow to greenish-yellow flowers are produced in loose, drooping,
few-flowered racemes up to 5 cm long. They have five or six tepals.
The sassafras tree is usually dioecious, the
male and female flowers grow on separate trees; and pollination is by insects. The male flowers have nine
stamens, while the female flowers have six staminodes (aborted stamens) and a 2–3 mm
style on a superior ovary.
The tree's fruit is a 1 cm long dark
blue-black drupe that contains a single seed, it is borne on a 2 cm long red fleshy
club-shaped pedicel. The fruit ripens in late summer, and seeds are
dispersed by birds. The cotyledons are thick and fleshy.
The tree's roots are fleshy and thick, and they often
produce root sprouts which are able to develop into new trees.
The entire tree is aromatic and spicy.
common names & nomenclature
The common name of sassafras is from the late 16th century Spanish sasafrás, based on Latin saxifraga "saxifrage."
Also known as:
silky sassafras, white sassafras, cinnamon wood, ague tree, saloip, saxifrax
